Contents of Issue 2:

Editorial:

Readying Facilitation for the 21st Century
By Mark A. Fuller

Articles:

Best Practices in Facilitating Virtual Meetings:
Some Notes From Initial Experience
By Daniel D. Mittleman, Robert O. Briggs and Jay F. Nunamaker, Jr.

Facilitating virtual teams - teams separated by time or distance - is a practice only recently developed. With new collaboration technologies, it is now possible to lead projects where team members collaborate using only technology links for communication. As these technologies are new, little information exists to guide facilitators as to best practices for conducting virtual facilitation. This article describes virtual facilitation environments and reports on lessons learned from one set of academic studies that investigated the practice of same-time and different-time virtual facilitation. Best practices are derived from these lessons and presented here as well.

Building Trust Among Members of a Work Team:
One Facilitator's Experiences
By Stephen B. King

This article describes the experiences of a facilitator who was involved with a six-person team of employees at Penn State University Library. Various interactions and experiences the facilitator had with the team are detailed. Early in the process, interpersonal trust, communication, and relationship emerged as important issues among team members. Several questionnaires were used to collect information, provide feedback to the group, and stimulate discussions. A variety of trust-building interventions, such as team-building and facilitated discussions, were implemented to improve the effectiveness of the team. A follow-up survey showed an improvement in several critical dimensions related to trust. This article describes the facilitation experience and lessons that were learned.

Facilitator Competencies
By Virginia Pierce, Dennis Cheesebrow and Linda Mathews Braun

The International Association of Facilitators and the Institute of Cultural Affairs have explored the question of facilitator competencies and skills for several years. One of the new insights of progressive organizations is the value of participatory processes to address new needs for analysis, decision-making, and action in today's environment of fast, complex change and global competition. Facilitation is increasingly being used as a participatory tool for getting results in group dialogue, analysis, decision-making, and planning. Competency in the design and delivery of participatory processes is the domain of the facilitation profession. This article presents six areas of facilitator competencies and the skills, knowledge, and attitudes necessary to demonstrate those competencies. It also suggests a number of areas where this model of facilitator competencies can be applied.

Comments on Facilitator Competencies
By Jean-Anne Kirk, Roger M. Schwarz, Marybeth Tahar, and Michael Wilkinson

Classics for Group Facilitators:

Origins of Group Dynamics
By Dorwin Cartwright and Alvin Zander

Essay:

Process Time for Project Teams
By Edward S. Ruete

Book Reviews:

Dialogue: Rediscover the Transforming Power of Conversation
By Linda Ellinor and Glenna Gerard
Reviewed by Cassandra Patrovani-Smith

Handbook of Team Design
By Peter H. Jones
Reviewed by Gerald Kail

The Complete Guide to Facilitation: Enabling Groups to Succeed
By Tom Justice and David Jamison
Reviewed by Lynda Lieberman Baker

Current and back issues are available for $25 each from the
International Association of Facilitators.